Fear Itself
by The Dragon's Throne
Summary: A great man once said, "The only thing to fear is fear itself."


Fear Itself

…_W-wha…_

_What…has happened?..._

_What is this…this pain…I feel?_

_How can I…even feel…pain?_

_My eyes… focus on the sky…_

_My sky…_

_My sky is black…_

_Where is the sun…?_

_I can smell the salt of the sea…and hear its churning waves…_

_But that's not possible…from here…_

_The buzzing of bloated, diseased flies swarm around me…as if I am a mere corpse…_

_I try to move but my body will not respond to my commands…and the pain…_

_The pain is now an agony…centered in my chest…below my heart…_

_As if I have been stabbed…_

_There is a noise…_

_Footsteps…_

_Someone…approaches me…_

_My eyes…I cannot move even them…But I can still see who it is…_

_Skin…the white of ash…_

_A tattoo…red as blood…_

_And the pain…is dulled by the rage and bloodlust…As I remember…the cause of this chaos…_

_**Him**._

_My prodigal son…_

_He stares down at me with disgust, his chained hand reaching out, grasping something-_

_The agony flares and for a moment I am struck mad by pain._

_Something metallic shifts in my chest, and the pain is so great I want to scream but my mouth makes no sound._

_And then, there is a sliding sound, of metal against flesh and the pain finally, mercifully, abates and my body shifts slightly._

_My son raises his hand, and I see the golden outline of a mighty sword._

_My sword._

_Once, I reveled in the pride of having created and wielded that weapon that ended the war and secured my rule…_

_Now I despise that blade almost as much as I despise the one holding it._

_He stares at the sword, then looks down on me, scowling with such disgust._

_Then, he carelessly tosses it aside…_

_As if that sword and I are mere garbage._

_And he turns away, his weapons and chains clanking as he walks slowly towards a cliff._

_And I want to feel more anger, more outrage at his callous and petulant ways. _

_AM I NOT YOUR FATHER?! AM I NOT THE KING OF THE OLYMPIANS!? HAVE I NOT EARNED MORE THAN THIS, THIS COMMON MORTAL'S DEATH?!_

_But I scream this internally, not in rage._

_But in fear._

_I am going to die._

_Me._

_I'm going to die on my back, in the rain and mud, consumed by these accursed flies…_

_And I am then consumed, not by these disgusting insects but by madness, a madness that plagued my father, and his father and so many of my sons and brothers._

_NO! I wail in my mind and soul._

_NO! NO I REFUSE THIS! I WILL NOT DIE! I WILL NEVER DIE!_

_The blackness of my sky looms over me._

_I WILL NOT DIE, I wail again and again. I WILL NOT DIE! I WILL NOT DIE!_

_NOT LIKE THIS!_

_And then…The madness gives way…_

_To fear._

_And with fear…_

_Comes power, greater than even my thunderbolt._

_My chest jerks, my arms twitch._

_I rise once again, a phoenix from its ashes…_

_Not in the common guise of flesh…_

_But in my true godly form…_

_A form so great it would blind and destroy these mortals I rule…_

_The flies scatter in terror, the rain sizzles and evaporates against my true skin as I gaze down on my body, noting with disgust at the ruin that has been both afflicted on it and my mountain, blemishes and scars on a once perfect form._

_But that matters not and can wait._

_My gaze goes to the son, my son, who has inflicted this ruin on myself, my brothers and my home._

_All for his petty need for revenge and atonement._

_The power crackles between my fingers and gathers in my palms and I raise my mighty arms high against my ruined sky and the crumbles of my mountain rise with them._

"_**I grow weary of you…MY SON!**"_

_My true voice stops even him in his tracks and he whirls to face me, surprise etched onto his marble features-_

_And I strike him with all the power fear has given me. And he is finally brought to his knees, kneeling before me, as he should have all along._

_His weapons scatter around him, broken and ruined like my mountain._

_I note with amusement that my son has claimed even the head of the god of the sun for a tool._

_The blinding white eyes of the head look up at me, once gazing in challenge. _

_And the fear in them is great._

_My son stumbles up, alive only because I have not seen to even begin to inflict my punishment upon him._

_A father should discipline his son._

_I have been far too lenient and piteous on this one. A mistake._

_And I have always rectified my mistakes._

_My hand grasps his neck and I see the color of it is midnight ebon, a tainted and diseased black against the marble white of his own._

_For a split-second that lasts an eternity in my mind, I am shocked one final time._

_Black? My true form should be beyond description, not this tainted black!_

_And then, in that same moment, I realize what this black is._

_It is fear._

_The power of fear…_

_And I smile._

_My son struggles, his mighty strength failing him at long last. I lift him easily, gazing into his brown, hateful eyes that still hold so much rage and defiance._

"_**I created you…**"_

_I created everything. I am the Alpha of all._

"_**AND I WILL BE YOUR END!**"_

_I am the Omega of all._

_I am beginning and end._

_And you will know I am your father, my son._

_As I lay _**my** _vengeance upon you!_

_Tendrils of pure fear extend from my hand and into him and I take what has been given to him, all his magic, all his vitality and all of his rage. It is mine by right._

_He struggles in outrage at first, growling in fury. The suddenly, the fury melts into desperation. And he whimpers, pleading for mercy…_

_In fear._

_I laugh, filling his soul with the essence that is fear itself…_

_The greatest power._

_My power._


End file.
